APIs & Operating Environments Books - Page 8

Understanding UNIX/LINUX Programming: A Guide to Theory and Practice

Bruce Molay

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> Linux -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An excellent course through Unix and Linux with copious code and examples. 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Unix has had the luxury of being one of the most documented operating systems in history. Many books have been dedicated to documenting the internals of Unix and Unix-like systems and some have risen to the ranks of classic texts regarded by all as necessary to understanding the inner workings of Unix. Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming would be in excellent company with these books. The book contains a copious amount of code and clear, diagramed explanations describing the processes transpiring in the machine.

Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming is designed to be used in an operating systems course with programmers fluent in C. Fortunately, though, the book can be used outside of the classroom if the reader does not mind an occasional open-ended questions with no included answers. The book may seem light on pages (530 including index), but the author should get an award for jamming so much useful explanation and helpful (and complete) code. The format of each chapter is familiar to most textbooks, with an introduction to the task at hand, explanations and examples, a summary, a list of explorations to further understand the topics presented, and a set of programming exercises. The exercises are creative and directly relate to the presented code. They're also (dare I say it?) fun. I'm not saying they'll replace crossword puzzles, but they do present creative or obvious challenges to the reader. (Like handling when a user types 'exit' from a shell, or blinking the text in an ncurses application).

The book includes topics on file I/O, device I/O, timers, process management, stream and datagram sockets, POSIX threads, file systems, the terminal driver, signals pipes, network programming and semaphores. A typical chapter will introduce an operating system concept (file systems and directories, for instance) and will briefly describe the current Unix command for working with that concept (pwd for determining the present working directory, or ls for listing the contents of a directory, and so forth). The author then proceeds to give a detailed description of what the operating system does to run the command. In the chapter on processes and programs, the author describes what processes are and how to use the ps command. Next the author describes how to fork child processes, and wait for them. This leads to the 'prompting shell', which is a simple, yet functional shell environment. Now some books would leave this exercise after creating a semi-functional shell, but the author presses on and in the next chapter creates 'small-shell' which is an interactive shell with a minimal scripting langauge and variable support. All of this in the span of 71 pages, with plenty of examples, full code listings, diagrams, and problem sets.

Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming takes advantage of the inquisitive nature of coders by presenting commands and command squences we all take for granted, and turning them into "how do they work" learning experiences. Anyone who has ever stopped to think why certain things work the way they do in Unix (or work at all) will find this book immensely helpful in sating that curiousity. Students who are assigned this textbook for a class should thank their teacher for choosing a genuinely useful text from which to read. I can't help but be jealous of students who will use this book for their classes. That jealousy is short-lived though, as anyone who wants an excellent resource for learning Unix programming will benefit from picking up this book. Kudos to the author for crafting not only an exceptionally easy to read and thourough book, but for taking the complex machinations of Unix and making them simple and accessible for all coders.

Editorial Review:

For courses in Unix Systems Programming, Unix System Administration, and as a supplemental text for courses in Advanced Networks and Systems Programming. This readable and comprehensive text clearly explains Unix programming and structure by addressing the solid fundamentals of Unix and providing different solutions to problems. All ideas and principles are introduced in the context of a practical problem, and excellent use is made of illustrations and listings in the text. Projects are solved by the development of complete programs, which are clearly commented on and integrated with explanations in the text.

UNIX Network Programming: Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI; Volume 1

W. Richard Stevens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of Two Must-Have UNIX Books 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This is one of two must-have UNIX books ("UNIX Network Programming" and "Advanced Programming for the UNIX Environment"). After I had been using UNIX for a long time and was getting into more advanced UNIX programming about a decade ago, these two books were recommended. I checked around and made comparisons. Sure enough, I had to agree. I bought both of them and use them a lot, even when doing Windows programming.

As an example, I had to reference them again this weekend. I am using Visual Basic and C++ under Windows to connect some UDP/IP communications between applications. Once again, these books were indispensable (even after looking at online help, Google, Microsoft Knowledge Base and Experts-Exchange). Any Internet professional should have both of these books on their shelf.

Editorial Review:

Thorough and authoritative, this book contains comprehensive coverage of the sockets API, the defacto standard for network programming. Once the basics are covered, the author moves on to advanced sockets topics, including IPv4 and IPv6 interoperability, UNIX domain protocols, nonblocking I/O, broadcasting, multicasting, threads and routing sockets. Client/server design alternatives are also fully examined.

Operating Systems: A Systematic View (6th Edition)

William S. Davis, T.M. Rajkumar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

The best book off it's type. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for a text that only covers Microsoft operating systems then this is not your book. BUT, if you want a book to teach the fundamentals of an operating system as a platform for today's bread and butter applications(AR, AP, BILLING, SA, INVENTORY, ETC) then this is super. The current world of new computer-ist they only know/learn the Microsoft systems. The bulk of processing done today is still in the backrooms with mainframe & midrange range systems using MVS, VM, VME, UNIX(and similars), and OS/400s, which Microsoft Win/95/98/NTs don't touch. This is for the student that must interface with the total computer industry not just word processing and INTERNET. It should be complimented with a good Win/98/NT bible type book.

I do wish it was updated a little.

Editorial Review:

This sixth edition provides students with an applied introduction to the principles of operating systems while guiding them through most operating systems used today. Aimed at students who are interested in using, rather than designing, computer operating systems and networks, the text is designed to show why operating systems are needed and what they do. This book takes students through the principles of OS and illustrates them with a wealth of examples.

Palm Programming for the Absolute Beginner w/CD (For the Absolute Beginner (Series).)

Andy Harris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Should be titled learn PocketC programming 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Yes, PocketC is a nice productive development environment for Palm - but it is based on a proprietary hybrid of the C language - and the whole book is centered around this specific development environment - if you think the book will cover standard c/c++ (e.g. using the gnu C++ compiler), you're in for a shock! Also, you have to BUY PocketC after 45 days, because it is shareware - the standard development environment offered by Palm (based on the Eclipse integrated environment & gnu c++) is FREE

Good for beginners, with caveats 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

PocketC is an excellent programming platform for Palm devices. I have used it to create simple programs, and it turns out, with little more care, can be used to create professional quality programs. This book does not show you how to create professional quality programs with PocketC. However, it is a good book to start if you want to learn programming in your own time.

Personally, I find the program samples rather useless, and not at all fun. Perhaps better examples should have been used. Watch out for amateurish code! Plenty of them peppers the examples. Most annoying is rectangles intersection code. The author admits it is faulty, and instead of fixing it, provides excuses for it. Why didn't he ask his smart programmer friend on how to fix it? It's not a hard problem. Some of the slowness of the code may stem from the way CControls works, so you may do better providing your own code. A reading of Algorithm by Robert Sedgewick can prove useful.

Good points: Easy reading, accessible for beginners. Good PocketC packages. STAIR principle.

Bad points: Amateurish code. Lots of space padding pictures. Not all examples are useful program.

Editorial Review:

The popularity of handheld technology is growing at a rapid rate. This book takes a fun approach to this difficult programming topic, teaching readers the fundamentals they need to know through the unique method of game programming. Readers create games for their PDA as they learn the basics of the Pocket C programming language. It is perfect for the hobbyist or moderately technically savvy computer user who wants to customize their PDA.

Simple Real-time Operating System: A Kernel Inside View for a Beginner

Chowdary Venkateswara Penumuchu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first motivation for writing this book is to teach my colleagues about RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) concepts and the proprietary RTOS developed for our project by me. I realized that the same material with some extension can be useful to most embedded engineers who are beginners in learning about RTOS. I came across many embedded engineers who are not comfortable to use real-time operating system. A significant fraction of these people have taken operating systems course during their undergraduate or graduate studies! The unease obviously even more aggravated for those embedded engineers who do not take operating systems course during their college level studies. I think this is the main reason that some companies still use tricky, messy workarounds to solve their scheduling problems in their simple and moderately complex projects. The operating systems course the engineers studied during their undergraduation is too broad which only cover theoretical aspects of all kinds of systems, and mostly devoid of practical training that students can not gain the ability to develop one!

RTOS market share surveys show a significant fraction of companies use their proprietary operating systems. The proprietary RTOS has the advantages of leanness, higher efficiency and much more configurability as it is entirely open. Even though the market share for proprietary RTOS is slowly declining, the fraction of the companies that use proprietary RTOSes will be significant for many more years. This book can be a great resource for the engineers who are developing and maintaining a proprietary RTOS for his/her company.

This book address the needs of the people who want to learn about RTOS and also those who want to develop one. This book gives in-depth understanding of RTOS, make the reader comfortable in understanding a code written using RTOS, make the reader comfortable using RTOS to develop a new piece of code. This book explains all basic RTOS concepts starting from scratch in detail. So a beginner or a person only with little experience with RTOS can significantly benefit from this book. This book discusses most of the RTOS concepts and implements them in a piece of code and develops one simple RTOS kernel, named as SROS (Simple Real-time Operating System). All the features for SROS kernel are developed one at a time in an evolutionary manner. So this book can also benefit an experienced person who wants to know more about RTOS kernel. As this book develop feature by feature in a piece meal fashion, this book can greatly benefit the people who want to develop a proprietary RTOS for their projects. As this book covers the kernel of RTOS and point out some short term projects a reader can do, this book can also be used by students who want to know about the kernel of RTOS and want to do some short term projects on RTOS.

This book introduces the RTOS concepts one by one and shows their implementations in C code, or pseudo C code together with ARM assembly code when C implementation is not possible (i.e. in case of Hardware Abstraction Layer functions). Every piece of code shown as example in this book has either C code or pseudo C code so readers with out the knowledge of ARM architecture and instruction set can also understand the functionality of the code easily. (The ARM code given in this book and CDROM is developed for ARM architecture V5 and tested on ARM9 platform). Allover the book when we mention ARM processor, it means we are referring to an ARM core that implement ARM V5 architecture. The RTOS code developed in the book is named as SROS (Simple Real-time Operating System). The SROS kernel implementation is on similar lines to many commercially available RTOSes. The SROS kernel features are added chapter after chapter. At any level of development, SROS code available in the accompanied CDROM can be readily used in an ARM based system and can be ported easily to other processor platforms. SROS features are implemented incrementally so that user has the choice of using it at any level of complexity. SROS with minimal features provide minimum code, execution time overheads and vice versa. The code size and execution complexity of SROS is less in the initial version compared to the later version even after unused functions are removed by linker. The accompanied CD-ROM provides 2 versions of SROS which were incrementally developed and finished by the end of 2nd and 3rd chapters.

The author assumes that the reader is familiar with C programming, and simple data structure - linked lists. No knowledge about assembly programming of ARM processor is assumed, even though the accompanying CDROM provide the SROS implementation on ARM platform, which is auxiliary.

The readers of this book after reading it can have the comfort of working/evaluating any RTOS, can have the comfort of knowing the internals of RTOS, can use highly simple and optimal SROS without any royalties with the flexibility of customizations, or can develop a simple proprietary real-time operating system in a few days.

Mastering Windows XP Registry

Peter D. Hipson, Peter Hipson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Expert Advice for Windows XP Power Users

Created for Windows power users and anyone who aspires to be one, Mastering Windows XP Registry provides focused, practical coverage of Windows' most important--and most challenging--element: the registry. Inside, you'll learn to customize Windows XP, optimize the network, and avoid scores of potential disasters, all by working with registry settings. If you're a power user, a system administrator, programmer, or consultant, this guide is absolutely essential.

Coverage includes:
* Understanding registry keys and data types
* Applying the secrets of the most important registry keys
* Adjusting the Windows GUI through registry settings
* Using the registry in networking
* Optimizing performance by editing registry settings
* Working with registry tools
* Recovering from disasters
* Eliminating unwanted keys, entries, applications, and files
* Taking advantage of the registry in your own programs
* Tracking registry changes made by applications
* Navigating registry entries

Operating System Concepts (Windows Xp Update)

Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne, Peter Baer Galvin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Silberschatz: Operating Systems Concepts, 6/e Windows XP Update Edition, the best selling introductory text in the market, continues to provide a solid theoretical foundation for understanding operating systems. The 6/e Update Edition offers improved conceptual coverage, added content to bridge the gap between concepts and actual implementations and a new chapter on the newest Operating System to capture the attention of critics, consumers, and industry alike: Windows XP.

· Brand new chapter on the newest operating system, Windows XP.
· Brand new chapter on Threads has been added and includes coverage of Pthreads and Java threads.
· Brand new chapter on Windows 2000 replaces Windows NT.
· Out with the old, in with the new! All code examples have been rewritten and are now in C.
· Client-server models and NFS coverage has been moved to an earlier part of the text.
· The sixth edition now offers increased coverage of small footprint operating systems such as PalmOS and real-time operating systems
· Updated! Core material in every chapter has been updated, as has coverage of Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD.

Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy: How to Talk with People about Their Spiritual Lives

James L. Griffith, Melissa Elliott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Quite fascinating 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book is definitely fascinating. It includes interesting vignettes and gives great insight on how to talk with people about their spirituality. The authors are open-minded and share from their personal experiences with clients. I would highly recommend purchasing this book.

a thought provoking resource 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a very detailed and practical view of the exploration and utilization of spirituality as a tool for healing.

Editorial Review:

Drawing on narrative, postmodern, and other therapeutic perspectives, this book guides therapists in exploring the creative and healing possibilities in clients' spiritual and religious experience. Vivid personal accounts and dialogues bring to life the ways spirituality may influence the stories told in therapy, the language and metaphors used, and the meanings brought to key relationships and events. Applications are discussed for a wide variety of clinical situations, including helping people resolve relationship problems, manage psychiatric symptoms, and cope with medical illnesses.

Microsoft Windows Vista Quick Reference Card - Handy Durable Tri-Fold Windows Vista Tip & Tricks Guide. 6 Total Pages. Stores Easily. Ultimate Reference for Operating System Shortcuts, Tips & Cheats for Windows Vista OS. (Software Quick Reference Cards)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

High quality quick reference cards for Vista - Essential! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I love Brainstorm's cards - easy to use and high quality. I also bought their set for Office 2007.

Editorial Review:

The Microsoft Windows Vista Quick Start Card provides an end-user training resource for Microsoft Windows Vista customers. Helps ease the transition during upgrades or migrations. Cards may also be distributed to reduce helpdesk calls, train new hires, and enhance overall productivity throughout the organization. -- The durable coated cardstock six-page tri-fold card is 8.5 x 11-inches and includes easy-to-understand step-by-step illustrated instructions on how to use the most common features of Microsoft Windows Vista including the following new features plus many more: Using Windows Aero and Flip 3D, Using Instant Search, Customizing Gadgets, Using the Sync Center, Using Windows Meeting Space.

UNIX and Shell Programming: A Textbook

Richard F. Gilberg, Behrouz A. Forouzan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Designed as one of the first true textbooks on how to use the UNIX operating system and suitable for a wide variety of UNIX-based courses, UNIX and Shell Programming goes beyond providing a reference of commands to offer a guide to basic commands and shell programming. Forouzan/Gilberg begin by introducing students to basic commands and tools of the powerful UNIX operating system. The authors then present simple scriptwriting concepts, and cover all material required for understanding shells (e.g., Regular Expressions, grep, sed, and awk) before introducing material on the Korn, C, and Bourne shells. Throughout, in-text learning aids encourage active learning and rich visuals support concept presentation. For example, sessions use color so students can easily distinguish user input from computer output. In addition, illustrative figures help student visualize what the command is doing. Each chapter concludes with problems, including lab sessions where students work on the computer and complete sessions step-by-step. This approach has proven to be successful when teaching this material in the classroom.